


Those Left Behind

by HamishHolmes



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-17
Updated: 2014-07-17
Packaged: 2018-02-09 07:49:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 5,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1974783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HamishHolmes/pseuds/HamishHolmes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the weeks after New York, when the team had time to process that they had survived, that they had won, the Avengers also had to come to terms with what they’d lost.</p><p>Specifically, Coulson.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Lab Lockdown (Tony)

Tony holed himself up in his lab for days at a time, not telling anyone what he was working on, never letting anyone in, not even Pepper or Steve. He didn’t sleep, eat and only drank coffee to keep him awake. Eventually, about once every three days, one of the others would manage to force him to eat something, but that was it. Then he would be back to work with no breaks, no pauses, no breathers. Then one day, in the middle of one of Tony’s moods, Pepper went downstairs to find him missing. From where she was, she could see the suits through the window, and see the empty space where his latest model should be. She sighed and went back upstairs, knowing that she’d never find him, not if he didn’t want to be found. 

Tony was actually in a bar, sat on a bar stool in his suit and drinking himself into a stupor. Of course, Jarvis knew where he was, but he wasn’t telling, on pain of dismantling, though he knew that Tony would never actually carry out the threat, the knowledge that he was deep enough in his grief to threaten it was bad enough. So Jarvis kept quiet and piloted the drunken hero home after days spent in bars, trying to drink and drug himself under the table in a desperate attempt to forget. 

When at last, Pepper had had enough, she broke into his lab to try and find out what he was doing. She couldn’t see anything different. Nothing had changed since before New York. She was thoroughly confused until she saw a dust sheet over what she had first assumed to be Dum-E. She pulled off the sheet and gasped, bringing her hands up to cover her face. There was an animatronic Coulson, complete with badge, tie and suit. Pepper looked at him, so close to perfect but not and she noticed the dial on the side. She turned it once. Nothing happened, then after a moment it said ‘Good luck, we need you,” in a perfect copy of Coulson’s voice. Pepper frowned and looked closer at the dial. It was turned to _Motivational. Its other settings were Angry, Condescending, Witty_ and _Fangirl-y._ Tony dealt with the death of someone more like a father to him than his father by building a replacement.


	2. Wish I'd Known You Better (Steve)

Steve didn’t move for the day after the fight finished. He just sat on his chair at the table, elbows on the table and chin resting on his knuckles. Everyone tried to talk to him, but he didn’t answer any of them, merely kept staring ahead and breathing slowly. Tony even set up a vid link with Peggy Carter, but Steve merely gave her one syllable answers and in the end Tony shut it off as a mercy to them both.  
When Steve finally moved, he went out, leaving the others still none the wiser to his motives. He returned with a big bag full of stuff and asked Tony how to access the files on his computer system. Eventually, Steve managed to understand what Tony was telling him and then asked Tony to leave him to it. Tony did so, but not without grumbling that he should be let in on the big secret since he had helped Steve out. But Steve didn’t bend. He sent Tony away and got down to work. He managed to locate all of the files that Tony had amassed on Coulson, from official records, to statements made by friends, family and Fury, and from newspaper clippings to Tony’s diary pages containing the word ‘Coulson’. Then Steve set about methodically printing them out until he had lots of them littered across Tony’s workstation. He then got out some of the other supplies he had bought and set to work with those. He pasted all of the clippings into his scrapbook, next to Peggy, Howard and Bucky. He called it his scrapbook of unsung heroes and it was slowly filling up, no matter how much he begged God for it to remain empty.

The next time the others saw him he was wearing a grey t-shirt that said _Coulson was the real hero around here_ on the front and had a big picture of Coulson beneath the text. On the back it had the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo and it said _He was our glue._


	3. Feasts and Feelings (Thor)

Thor hadn’t known the Son of Coul all that well. He was just an agent in a black suit with nothing to hide, but he had made friends with Thor when everyone else had shunned him as an unknowable unlikable super-being. So Thor, when he had returned to Asgard with Loki had celebrated the man in the only way he knew how. He had thrown a massive feast, but for the first time since he had been a child and they had first thrown feasts for fallen warriors, he didn’t feel like eating much. Son of Coul was a wise man and a good man, and somehow Thor felt that being happy was not a fitting tribute to the man. And so, he left the others feasting and walked out onto the cool balcony of the palace and watched as the stars glistened over head and wondered why he missed this Son of Coul more than any of the other people he had ever known to die in battle. And then, with the wind running its fingers through his golden hair he realised that he felt partially responsible for the death of the Son of Coul, for it was he who let Loki get away and it was he who had fallen for his tricks and not been able to stop him in time. In fact, it was almost entirely his fault. He sat there and the more he thought about it, the more it seemed like it was entirely his fault and that if he had not been born then Son of Coul would still be alive and so he turned his contemplation to falling on his own sword and avoiding the dishonour that he brought to all those around him by causing the death of a noble man. But he realised that Son of Coul would not have wanted that. He would not have blamed Thor and he would have believed that Thor should keep going and that when Earth needed him again that he would be there for Earth, because Son of Coul believed in heroes. He had never stopped to wonder if he was one of them.


	4. BANG! (Bruce)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Possible Trigger Warning for Suicide (not graphic or anything, just in case. Better safe than sorry)

Bruce did not know how to react when he could finally process that Coulson was gone. It seemed almost surreal as if at any point he would come walking through the door and say, ‘you guys needed something to get you in gear.’ Then they would have laughed it off and it would have gone back to normal. But Bruce knew that they would never get that opportunity because people couldn’t just come back from the dead. It was impossible. Even he could not think of a way in which it could be done without enormous mental repercussions on both patient and doctor. The more he thought about the agent, the more he realised that he had known him. He had known that the man loved Cap and had refused to believe he was dead. He knew that he had trusted the other guy on a plane with other people, real live people. He knew that Fury trusted the man to the ends of the universe and beyond. He knew that the man had believed in heroes. He knew that he was proud to be an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. He knew that if anyone had a right to be remembered and honoured as a hero it was Phil Coulson. The more he thought about it, the more he was convinced that without Coulson, he would never have been allowed on the plane. This thought was constantly ricocheting around Bruce’s mind and he became completely paranoid that everyone was scared of him and that everyone wanted him to leave, the plane or the realm of the living. He didn’t really think they cared much. So Bruce went into the hanger where the other guy had chased Natasha and sat back against the wall and feet against a crate. He looked at the wreckage he had caused for what seemed like an age, until he swung the gun up and into his mouth in one swift movement, pulling the trigger the moment it was in position. The shot echoed round the whole helicarrier and he could feel himself changing. The other guy spat out the bullet and then he did something he’d never done before. The other guy talked to Bruce. All he said was, “No,” but it shocked Bruce enough that he dropped the gun and began to concentrate on shrinking himself back down into his normal body. Then, at the sound of running feet, he rooted in the crates until he found a uniform and put it on. Natasha, Tony and Clint came at a run, followed by Maria.

“Don’t ever do that again,” said Nat, tackling into him.

Bruce expected her to start laying into him, but she just held him, holding on so tight that he thought he was going to burst.

“Why do you care?” he asked, when she let go.

She really did hit him then, twice in the stomach, hard. He doubled over.

“Because we’re your friends, because we like you, because I’ve never met anyone quite as sweet as you, and because your life is worth so much more than that ending.”

Bruce never tasted bullet again.


	5. Take It Out On Me (Clint & Natasha)

Natasha didn’t tell Clint that Coulson was dead until after Thor had removed Loki from Earth, because she knew that if she did, Clint would go racing after Loki on a suicide mission, the same way she wanted to, and that there was a good chance that he wouldn’t come back. When she did tell him, he didn’t believe her. He went round asking everyone where Coulson was and when he could get to see him and everyone looked at him with such pity in their eyes that he stopped asking. So he went down to the target range with a photo of Loki and all of his arrows. When he got there, he found himself facing a black back and a series of rapid gunshots. He took the lane next to Natasha and stuck the picture to the end of one of the arrows. He then shot the picture at the board, hitting the bulls eye and then pressed a button that dissolved the arrow. He then shot all of his arrows rapidly until he could no longer see Loki’s nose. Then he went and retrieved his arrows, before shooting them all back into the board. He repeated this until the face was in tatters and barely hanging onto the board. Then he went across to stand behind Natasha and looked over her shoulders. There were rows and rows of orderly shots in a grid formation filling the whole cut out target that had a horned helmet head. Clint grinned and tapped her lightly on the shoulder.

“You look like you’ve filled that board there, Tasha,” he said when they had taken off their ear protectors “you wanna spar?”

She nodded and they began to spar. Pepper found them the next morning, both of them still on their feet, both of them still throwing punches and both of them with more bruises and cuts to count and Clint had tear tracks through the grime and blood on his face and Natasha’s mascara was dribbling down her cheeks and all of her lipstick had been chewed off.

For weeks and weeks, all one of them had to do was nod and they would head down to the training yard so that they could beat the shit out of things so that they wouldn’t take it out on other people.


	6. My One Good Eye (Nick)

When Nick Fury found Coulson, back against the wall and blood dribbling from the corner of his mouth, he felt a hole open in his chest. When he lost his eye, he thought that he would never be that disorientated again. He was wrong. 

Staring down at Coulson, he felt completely lost again. He found himself praying to a God that he didn’t believe in to save the dying man. He was confused for a moment when the paramedics called the death and whilst he sent out the message of the death over the communications array. He sat there as they put him into a grey body bag and watched as he was carried away; the bravest man he ever knew, laid low by a maniac who was never supposed to get this far. He had to stand up and stand tall and get on with his job. He did what he had to, to motivate the Avengers and then he went to grieve. 

Except Nick Fury couldn’t let Coulson die. That man had saved his life on multiple occasions and been his right hand man through everything. He couldn’t let him die, and so he made the hardest decision of his life. He decided to bring out T.A.H.I.T.I. something that he’d sworn he’d never use, but Loki forced his damn hand. He was so pissed at the bastard that he drove his fist through the table at one point, when trying to talk sense into the council. 

But he knew that if anyone was going to return from the dead, it was Agent Phil Coulson.


	7. Tears (Maria)

When Maria had time to process the fact that Coulson was actually dead, she cried. She sat down on her sofa, curled up around her pillows and sobbed loudly into the empty apartment. The sobs tore at her throat and shook her whole body. He couldn’t be gone, he just couldn’t. She punched the pillow, hard and fast, tears dribbling down her nose and dripping down onto the floor. She screamed and shouted and punched everything she could reach, throwing stuff and smashing a whole stack of the cheap Ikea plates that she’d bought when she first moved in. When her hands were beaten bloody and her throat was raw and her makeup was completely ruined, she slept. When she woke, she put her work-face on and went to see Fury.

“Fury?” she asked, at the entrance to his office, “are you initiating ... T.A.H.I.T.I.?”

“You know me too well, Maria.”


	8. Talking To No-one (Tony)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The funeral was quiet. They made sure that no one knew where it was being held, no press, no civilians, no one. Even the Avengers and agents invited were only told the day before so that no one could gate crash, because Phil Coulson deserved more than that.

Tony went with Pepper and they arrived in her small red Beatle, because Tony’s car was way too noticeable. He arrived in his black suit, a long thin black tie, just like Coulson used to wear. He clutched Pepper’s arm tightly as they made their way to the church. He stood as the coffin went passed, but he didn’t say anything. He didn’t say anything, the whole day, not even to Pepper. He merely held tight to her arm, stumbling occasionally and never leaving her side, even on the walk to the graveyard. After everyone else had gone, he sent Pepper away and she left, knowing that he needed to be alone. Tony sat by the grave and smooshed his hands into the mud. Pepper stood a way away, but she could still hear what he was saying, just.

“Hey, I know we didn’t always see eye to eye, mainly because you actually like the rules. But you need to know that I never thought that you deserved this and I wanted to help you, so badly, and I shouldn’t have let you down, because you deserved more and I consider you one of the Avengers and I didn’t think you deserved this and ... I miss you.”

Tony stood up, hands and knees covered in mud. He went back over to Pepper and pulled on his hat.

“We’d better go, Pepper; it looks like it’s starting to rain.”

Pepper looked up into the cloudless azure sky: “No, it doesn’t.”

“Yes, it does.”

Tears began to trickle down Tony’s cheeks from eyes masked by the hat.

“Oh yes, I can feel it now. We’d better go or else we’ll catch a cold.”

Tony grasped her arm tightly again and they headed home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, shameless stealing from the graveyard scene in Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood with Hawkeye and the Flame Alchemist (Riza and Roy)


	9. Gifts and Gazes (Steve)

Steve was just getting ready for the funeral when there was a knock on the door. He opened it to find Maria Hill on the threshold of his room in Stark Tower. She held out a suit carrier and Steve took it, confused.

“It was in Coulson’s collection. I know he wanted you to have it.”

She left without another word, leaving him stood there, holding the bag, and staring after her, a look of complete puzzlement on his face. He lay the bag down on his bed with a reverence deserved of anything in Coulson’s collection. He unzipped the bag and looked inside. When he saw what it was, he gasped. There, in the exact condition he left it was his uniform. He reached out and touched it. It felt exactly as he remembered it. He looked from it across at the black suit he was planning to wear and then back across at his uniform, and made a decision.

When he arrived to the church, the others passed no comment on his outfit and instead nodded their acceptance and though Steve didn’t needed, he felt a bit better for having it. The coffin was closed, and Steve was partially glad of it, but he wanted to make sure that something went in there with him. So he went across to the coffin and bent down, but the coffin was absolutely sealed. Swallowing his annoyance, he headed over to where Fury was stood, looking more stoic than normal.

“Sir,” he said, standing in front of the director of S.H.I.E.L.D.

“Captain?” said Nick, startled out of his own thoughts.

“I know that it’s a closed coffin, but I’d like to give him this,” he held out something shiny and slipped it into Nick’s hand, “can you put it in to the coffin, or at least the grave?”

Steve walked away and Nick looked down at his palm and then across at Maria who was stood nearby.

“He just gave Coulson his damn medal!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not sure if Steve was ever canonically given a medal ... but oh well!


	10. Slight Mistake (Thor)

Thor came back from Asgard for the funeral, wearing something that he thought was vaguely acceptable for a Midgardian funeral. And it was vaguely acceptable. He had a pair of jeans and a jacket on, but unfortunately he had missed the memo on shirts, so his muscled abdomen was on show for everyone to see. But he kept the jacket closed once somebody pointed out that it was slightly indecent and looked a little embarrassed. But when the service started and the speakers started speaking, those sat behind Thor could see his great shoulder’s shaking and those sat next to him could see large tears rolling down his cheeks. He pulled out a handkerchief and started wiping his eyes with it just as Nick came to the stand. Eventually, he had to leave because he was sobbing so hard and he couldn’t see the coffin, nor could the others hear Nick.


	11. Subtlety of Pain (Clint & Natasha)

Clint and Natasha arrived together, her fingers digging into his forearm. She was tottering on high heels that she was normally fine wearing, heels that she could even fight in. He was wearing a suit and she a dress. The two of them looked suave and sophisticated, but the image was somewhat ruined by clenched teeth, white knuckles and tear filled eyes. They didn’t sit in the pews with the other mourners. Instead, they stood at the back and Tasha leant against Clint’s chest and he had his arm round her, pulling her in close for protection. They watched on, not letting the speakers see that they were hurting. He watched the coffin, as if Coulson were about to sit up and tell them that they were being silly and he wasn’t gone, of course he wasn’t. She watched the crowds just in case Coulson was going to whip a hat and fake moustache off and smile around at the good joke and tell them that he wasn’t gone, of course he wasn’t. But neither of them cried, neither of them wept, or sobbed. They kept their faces impassive and those agents who didn’t know them looked on with almost disgusted looks on their faces, as if they thought that the two assassins did not care. But the Avengers and Maria, Pepper and Nick, knew that they were trained to push emotions down and get on with the job and they could see by the tiny flickering of their eyes and the minute twitching of the lips and the glances that they threw at each other along with the slight hugs the Clint gave her round her shoulders. 

When they got out to the grave and watched as the coffin was lowered into the ground, Clint nearly lost his cool.

“They can’t bury him,” he whispered to Natasha, “he can’t be buried, Tasha, he just can’t.”

“I know, Clint, I know.”

Then, as the others milled around, they went over to the grave and they put a hand on each side of the gravestone. And then, Tasha’s nerve broke and she began to cry, with the tears dribbling silently down her cheeks. Clint lead her away from the others with a call about needing to be alone, because he knew that she wouldn’t want to see her like that.


	12. Secrets and Misgivings (Nick & Maria)

Nick and Maria were stood in the graveyard watching the last of the mourners trickling away and watching Tony collapsing to the floor by the graveside.

“But sir, can’t we just tell them?” asked Maria, looking round at her boss.

“Agent Hill, you know we can’t do that.”

“But sir, he wouldn’t want this.”

“But we can’t let them know that he is alive or else he may not be for much longer.”


	13. Falsehoods and Frustration (Tony)

When Tony found out that Coulson wasn’t dead, he was in his lab. A call was patched through to his monitors and he answered it absent-mindedly. Then Coulson’s head popped up on screen and Tony’s face had paled completely. He stood up, throwing his chair backwards and tripping forward into Dum-E. 

Then he stood straight, one hand on the desk.

“Whoever the FUCK this is, it’s not FUNNY!” he yelled, the screen shaking slightly as he screamed, “I can’t believe you would stoop as low as to use HIM against me. Of all people,”

Tears were chasing each other down his face, catching in his beard and hanging there like jewels.

“He didn’t deserve THIS!”

“Tony, it’s me,” he said, his voice calm as it always was when he was talking to one of S.H.I.E.L.D’s children.

Tony’s anger faltered momentarily. Then it faded all together and he collapsed back into his chair.

“If you’re not him, you’d better disconnect now. I don’t care for your games any more, whatever you want from me, you can have it, just leave me alone.”

“Tony, what do I have to do to make you believe that it’s really me?” said Coulson on screen.

“Tell me something only he would know.”

“My first name’s ‘agent’ and you don’t like to be handed things,” said Coulson with a small smirk.

“My god,” said Tony, getting to his feet, “it is you.”

“Yeah, and I’m calling you in.”

“Just like old times.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm aware other people might know the things Coulson used to convince Tony, but really Tony didn't need (or want) much convincing.


	14. Holograms and Coffee

Steve’s fists pumped like pistons, engines pumping fuelled by his anger and pain. He knocked the punch bag from its support in the ceiling and went to pick it up.

“You really should stop doing that you know,” came a voice from behind him, “the budget can’t support it much longer.”

Steve smirked slightly and turned to see Agent Coulson standing there, hands in pockets. Frowning, Steve reached down and pinched his arm, long and hard. Coulson didn’t disappear. He poured what was left in his water bottle over his head and looked again. Coulson was still there.

“Wow, holograms are really coming on these days,” he muttered to himself as he re-hung the punching bag.

“Are they?” asked Coulson, “I must check that out.”

Steve turned.

“Who knew that one day I would be less tech savvy than you,” said Coulson, removing his hands from his pockets and holding something out, “you never got to sign these; you got a moment now?”

“Uh ... yeah, I got a moment,” said Steve, pulling the cards from Coulson’s hands and a pen from his gym bag.

He signed the top of the deck and handed it back, “Sorry that they’re not in mint condition anymore.”

“Hey, with your signature and my blood, they’re worth even more like this. Also, I was never in it for the money.”

“Do you want to get a coffee?” asked Steve, picking up his kit bag, “I could do with a drink.”

“Yeah, sure,” said Coulson, “no where too obvious though.”


	15. Pop Tarts and Jeremy Kyle (Thor)

Thor was watching television. It was some ‘crappy day-time telly’ as Tony had said, but Thor was enjoying watching this Kyle man and his guests. They were so petty that it was amusing to the god. They were discussing a man who had slept with multiple men as well as woman, without telling his lady that he enjoyed sex with men. Thor was confused, because on Asgard it was not considered strange to have multiple partners of both genders. Anyway, the next guest was promised to be another confusion over who the father of the child was because they were all totally promiscuous and didn’t seem to know how to use protection. He was trying to guess, by looking at the faces of the men, which was the father, when there was a knock at the door.

“COME IN!” yelled Thor, not taking his eyes of the screen.

“Hello, Thor,” came a voice that he had not expected to hear again, a voice from Valhalla.

He jumped to his feet and called his hammer over on reflex. But there stood the son of Coul, pizza in hand and hat on head.

“Son of Coul?” asked Thor, still not believing his eyes. After all, no one has ever returned from Valhalla. 

“Yeah,” said Phil, “I just wondered f you wanted some pizza and if I could watch Jeremy Kyle with you.”

“Yes, I would enjoy that greatly,” said Thor, sitting down, but not actually releasing Mjolnir from his grasp.

“I brought pop tarts,” said Phil, plonking himself down on the sofa.

And with that, Thor dropped the hammer on the floor and began explaining to Coulson exactly who the people were and what was going on. They ended up ordering more pizzas, as they marathoned the show for about three days.-


	16. Anger and Acceptance (Clint & Natasha)

“Hey Maria,” said Natasha, sliding into the booth across from the other lady, “how’s life?”

“You know, ongoing,” said Maria, smiling, “where’s Clint?”

“I’m right here,” said Clint, holding out a tray of cups, “English tea for Maria, Black coffee for Nat, and a black with one sugar for me.”

He placed the tray on the table and the girls helped themselves to their drinks,

“And of course, BISCUITS!” he said, producing the pack of bourbons from behind his back.

“Every time,” said Natasha.

“He must think it’s still funny or something,” said Maria, smiling despite herself.

Clint squished in beside Natasha, rubbing his foot gently against her calf.   
She smiled slightly and leant against him very slightly, letting him know that she appreciated him just being there for her.

“So, what’s going on, now that Nick’s company’s fallen?” asked Clint, talking as they usually did without giving any information about what was going on. Even though it was plastered all over the news, old habits die hard.

“Not much, Steve and Sam are looking for Steve’s old friend, so you won’t get to meet Sam yet,” she said to Clint, “birds of a feather won’t flock together, just yet.”

“Aha ha ha ha. No,” said Clint, deadpanning, “no, I can’t wait to meet him, but I haven’t seen Nick in ages. Is he coming to the next do?”

“Yeah, he’ll be around sometime, but I think you’ll see a different familiar face, first.”

Clint looked at Natasha and was glad that she looked as confused as he was. When Nat was confused, then it didn’t matter if he was, because everyone would be.

“So, Tony and Bruce dropping by?” she asked, completely perplexed, but then, something happened that sent her into a stunned silence.

A man slipped in beside Maria and smiled.

“Hey guys,” said Phil, “long time no see.”

Clint cocked his head to one side and Nat simply frowned her frowned, which Clint usually found adorable, but right now, he didn’t even notice it.

“Guys?”

Silence and stillness from the master assassins.

The two spies looked at one another and then back at the others. But they still hadn’t moved.

Then, without a word, or a gesture, the two of them stood in tandem, nodded to Maria and wandered out of the diner into the city. Neither of them spoke, instead falling into step automatically as they made their way along the street ignoring the calls of Maria behind them.

“It’s okay, Maria; if they don’t want to see me, I won’t force them,” said Coulson softly.

They stopped. The two master assassins, agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. heroes of the Earth just stopped in the middle of the pavement, forcing those behind them to walk around them, grumbling at the stupidity and arrogance of some people.

“How can you think that?” said Nat, turning round to face Coulson, knowing that though they were too far away and speaking too quietly, he would be reading her lips and he would know what she was saying.

“You’re walking away; you won’t look at me or talk to me,” he said, taking two steps forward.

 

With that, Natasha’s face crumpled into something resembling fury and she raced forwards, pushing her way through throngs of startled tourists until she reached Coulson, and then kept going. She pinned him up against the wall of a cafe by the collar of his neck.

“You died,” she said, as Clint followed her at a more languid pace, loitering in her peripheral vision and watching Phil with an expression that merely said, ‘I concur with everything she is saying and doing.’

“You. Were. Dead. I heard the call go out. I saw the blood on your cards. I saw you on a fucking gurney in a body bag,” she blinked tears away and brushed them off her cheeks with her free hand, “We lost you, Clint and I lost you, Maria lost you and Nick lost you. I saw you lowered into the earth and I saw your coffin covered in damp soil.”

Her free hand was clenched and Coulson could see the muscles pulsing and the hand twitching as she fought her impulse to hit him.

“And suddenly, here you are, alive. I’m not sure what to say or do and so I didn’t say or do anything. Tomorrow, or the day after, or the day after, I will talk to you and punch you lightly on the arm and laugh and hug you, because I will be able to think again that you are here and that I can trust you, because you left me and I can’t trust you again just yet.”

Clint stepped forwards and put his hand on her shoulder. Nat took a deep breath and let go, turning away, but then she turned back, pinning Coulson again.

“He fucking gave you his medal,” she said.

“What?” asked Coulson, momentarily confused.

“Cap,” she murmured, “he gave you his medal. He thought you decided you deserved it better and he was right, kind of. You deserved as many medals as this world can bestow because you you are a great man. Just remember that you can drop in any time. I promise not to jump you.”

She let go with a smile, and then moved forwards again to hug her friend.

“I missed you,” she murmured.

Late that night, Nat curled up against Clint and cried with relief until she could let her wonder at Coulson being alive.

(Clint of course accepted the truth the moment he saw Coulson and merely kept Nat company as she freaked out. He had known about T.A.H.I.T.I. and that Nick could never let Coulson go. That and the closed coffin had tipped him off)-


	17. Shocks and Shattering (Bruce)

Bruce was in his lab on the top floor of Stark Tower when he heard a knock on the door.

“Come in, Natasha,” he said, because she was the only one who ever knocked before entering the room.

“I’m not Natasha,” said a male voice behind him, and before he could help it, Bruce felt the other guy coming out and before he could take control, he whacked Coulson straight through the glass wall.

“Oh shit,” said the hulk, throwing himself out of the window and across to where Coulson was falling.

He caught the man and barrelled straight into the opposite building. They landed on a thin carpet and rolled in a storm of glass and a sea of shocked faces.

He felt himself transforming back and pulled Coulson’s Jacket off the other man and round his own shoulders.

He sat up with a slight smile and stared awkwardly around at the startled faces of the lawyers in whose office he was now sitting.

“I’ll pay for that window,” he said as Coulson came round, “I’m really sorry.”

“That’s okay,” said a man sat at the front, “but could I get a signature for my daughter, or she’ll kill me.”

Bruce smiled and signed everyone’s scraps of paper, ties and envelopes. 

Eventually Coulson was awake enough to walk down the stairs and then across the street, the two of them looking like they had had a one night stand which ended with there being less than enough clothes left for them both.

“Nice to have you back,” said Bruce as they entered the lobby of Stark Tower.


	18. Epilogue

Nick and Maria sat on the sofa in Tony’s front room with everyone else, Coulson in the middle and everyone in various states of consciousness as the day drew to a close and that were all knackered from hours of work.

“Maybe this won’t be so bad after all.”


End file.
